9.

Denrich foils an assassination attempt

9.

 

Denrich awoke from a deep sleep, momentarily unsure where he was, but in a short time he remembered.    Years of waking up at 5 AM told him that it was around that time, though the train was still moving through a dark landscape.    Stretching for a few moments, he considered going back to sleep, but instead he dressed and quietly slid out into the hallway of the train.

Several muted arcane glow torches along the walls provided just enough light to see to walk.    The Princess’ cabin door was shut and he hoped that she had made it back and was fast asleep.    Curiosity sent him toward the dining car and he found the glow torches here still shining brightly as a lone servant worked on clearing away dishes and washing tables.

“Sorry, sir; we won’t be serving breakfast for another hour and a half.”

“That’s alright; I just wanted to sit and try to clear my head… if that is alright.”

The servant; a teenaged human boy, shrugged and so Denrich sat down in a chair near one of the doors.

“You’re working rather late, aren’t you?   Did Lady Xael’s dinner go late into the night?”

The teenager snorted, “Yeah, they finally left just an hour ago - can you believe that?”

“That must have been quite a dinner.”

“Hey - you’re that Sheriff from Wemricshire, aren’t you?   The one escorting the elf princess?”

“That’s me - Sheriff Denrich.”

“I thought so - did you know that she was here?   The princess, I mean.    She was Lady Xael’s dinner guest!    They really hit it off too!    They were laughing and talking just like they were sisters or something.   Heck, they even looked like they were sisters.   Only, Lady Xael was better looking… not to say that the princess wasn’t fine to look at too!   She’s gorgeous, and if she’d not been sitting across from Lady Xael, she would have won the award for the sexiest woman I’d ever seen.    But next to Lady Xael, she didn’t quite measure up.    Still, both of them together in one room… man, what a lovely scene to behold!   Every servant working on this train was volunteering to bring in dishes and wait on them hand and foot.    I was privileged enough to be here for the whole dinner!”

“Lucky you,”  Denrich replied with good humored sarcasm.

“I could have just sat there and stared at them all day, Sheriff!   You should see Lady Xael - she is unbelievable!”

“So I hear; so you say that Princess Avalynn and Lady Xael hit it off?”

“You should have seen them, Sheriff!    They were laughing and carrying on like two kids who had known each other their whole lives.    They ate quickly, then sat around smoking - even though it isn’t allowed in here- and flirting around with the important people.     That old Duke - I can’t think of his name- was acting like a little boy trying to impress his first case of puppy love.    He was pouring it on thick, let me tell you!   All the men were, actually.”

“Did they leave with any of them?”   Denrich asked with a wry smile and the boy smirked, but shook his head.

“No; though many of them tried.     Lady Xael just announced that she was tired and was retiring to her quarters and that immediately broke up the festivities.    She escorted your princess back to her room; they hugged like sisters and then Lady Xael just went to her private car.”

Denrich nodded, “They’ll both probably sleep half of the day away, but that’s fine by me - that way I don’t have to worry about the Princess getting into any trouble.”

“How’d you score such an awesome job as the princess’ escort?”

Denrich shrugged, “I’m just following orders that I received from the royal court.    The Princess is quite a handful, I can tell you that!   I can’t wait to get back to St. Wemricshire and normality.”

The boy shook his head as if what Denrich had just said was the craziest thing ever uttered.

Denrich yawned, and then got to his feet, “Well, I’m sure you want to get your work done and get some rest, so I’ll just wander back to my cabin.”

“Nice talkin’ to you, Sheriff,”  The boy said before turning back to his work, and Denrich bid him goodbye, then slipped back out into the dimly lit hallway and began heading toward his room.

 

He had almost reached his destination when, from somewhere far toward the front of the arcane train, there was a flash of bright blue light and with a terrible jolt, the train abruptly stopped dead in its tracks.

The immediate deceleration sent the young Sheriff tumbling head over heels and from the cabins and other train cars could be heard the sounds of people being thrown from their beds and furniture crashing down.

Then there was a long moment of stunned silence, except for the sounds of shouting from outside the train and galloping horses.    As he staggered to his feet, far up ahead, a group of dark cloaked figures boarded the train, jumping up onto the coupling clamps that joined the cars, swinging the door open and rushing down the narrow corridor.

They wore masks over their faces like bandits, but were armored with chainmail and carried short swords, daggers and clubs designed for confined combat.

Seeing him standing in the hallway, the leading bandit made a gesture to some of the men behind him and four of them ran past him to intercept Denrich with their weapons ready.

“Hey!   Bandits!   Bandits!   We’re being attacked!”   He yelled the warning at the top of his lungs, hoping (but doubting) that those in the conducting wizard’s car up front would hear it and somehow get the train moving again before the rest of the bandits riding up each side of the train could find a boarding point.

He kept yelling his warning and several doors swung open, only to swing closed again upon seeing the men running toward Denrich.

One elderly merchant actually stepped outside of his room, a few feet in front of Denrich and was working to free a sword from his scabbard when a thrown knife from one of the attackers caught him squarely in the throat, sending him crumbling at the feet of the advancing bandits.

The brigands just leaped over the dying man and rushed upon Denrich.

After several years of dealing with bar fights, occasional highwaymen, and assorted criminals from time to time, he had become very good at fighting in close quarters.

As the lead brigand raised his club to swing, Denrich just ducked his head and plowed into him, butting him squarely in the chest.   The bandit fell back, causing the one behind him to tumble down too, and Denrich went with them, but he pounded the nearest one in the face with his fist and then scooped up his club.

The third brigand in line jumped over his fallen companions to attack the Sheriff, but Denrich had scurried backwards slightly.   The bandit advanced upon him with a short sword in one hand and a dagger in another.

The man swung the short sword which Denrich parried with the club he’d snatched up and as the brigand thrust his dagger at him, the Sheriff caught the man’s wrist and twisted it quickly around while slamming the bandit’s arm into the side of the hallway.

He yelped in pain, dropping the dagger and Denrich struck while he was momentarily stunned, bringing his club sharply across the man’s temple with a sickening crack.     He slumped down into the hallway at once.

Immediately two more bandits rushed him, but just as they neared, suddenly Princess Avalynn’s door slightly popped open right in front of him and her head poked into the hallway.  

“What’s going on?”  She asked in a sleepy voice, but Denrich didn’t have time to respond.

He kicked the door backwards, ripping it from the startled girl’s hand and directly into the path of the two bandits that were trying to move around it to get at him.

The door caught one of the brigands in the face, knocking him back, but his companion lunged forward at Denrich as Avalynn’s scream pierced their ears.

The bandit’s club contacted with the Sheriff’s right shoulder, knocking him sideways into the wall, but as he fell, he swept out with his left leg, causing the man to stumble over it and fall beside him.

It was too close to use the club, so he hit him as hard as he could in the nose three times.    

Avalynn’s door had rebounded back and she slammed it shut.    The brigand that Denrich had stunned with the door now had regained his senses and was leaning over the fallen Sheriff with a cocked crossbow, aimed at this heart.

He couldn’t hesitate and kicked with both feet into the man’s knees, forcing them backwards violently, which popped them out of their sockets.    This jerked his torso enough so that the crossbow bolt just grazed his left arm before the bandit fell on top of him.

Denrich knew he didn’t have time for a fistfight, so he rammed his elbow into the man’s nose, which broke with a loud pop, then, while he was still stunned, he rolled him off of him.

Two more bandits had stopped a short distance down the hall and were aiming crossbows at him, prepared to fire as soon as he cleared away from their companions.

Finding his club with his left hand, he flung it down the hallway at them and leapt to his feet, expecting to feel the impact of at least one bolt at any moment.

But just as he had thrown the club, the conducting wizard had neutralized the dispelling magic that had been cast on the track and the arcane train started moving again with a sudden jolt.    This caused both of the bandit’s shots to miss (though one did hit one of their companions sprawled out in the floor behind Denrich).

Denrich stumbled at the jolt, crashing into the wall on the side of the hall, but kept moving forward as fast as he could.

The two brigands didn’t have time to reload their crossbows, nor room to draw their weapons.   One wisely retreated backwards a few steps to give him time and space to pull his short sword free or maybe load another crossbow bolt, but the other one thought he would use the crossbow as a club. 

Yet the train hallway was too narrow and he could not get any force behind his swing.   Denrich again ducked his head and just used his torso as a weapon, ramming the man sideways into the wall as he took the blow from the swung crossbow against his arm.

Denrich punched the man as hard as he could in the stomach.

The bandit’s chainmail did little to absorb the impact, though it made the Sheriff regret hitting him there.

When the man doubled over from the blow, Denrich grabbed him by the shoulders and prepared to fling him into the wall on the opposite side, hopefully head-first.

But his eye caught movement ahead in time to see the other brigand raising his crossbow at him.     Just as he fired it, Denrich pushed the bandit he was grappling with backwards and the bolt hit the bandit in the upper back, his chainmail stopping it from going in deep enough to kill him.

Still, he was injured and he crashed to the floor.   Denrich leaped over him and charged the shooter of the bolt.     The brigand wasn’t prepared this time and just tried to thrust the crossbow into the Sheriff’s face, but Denrich knocked it aside and tackled the man, his momentum sending the bandit backwards.

The brigand fought savagely, swinging his fists, bucking and kicking as he tried to break free.    One swing clipped Denrich’s chin, yet the Sheriff fought back, aiming blows at the man’s face in a desperate attempt to disable him.

But out of nowhere, the man suddenly had a dagger, which he slashed at Denrich.    He felt warm blood flowing from a cut in his upper chest, then a stab in his forearm, before he managed to catch the man’s wrist and slam his hand against the side of the hallway.  

The dagger fell from his grasp and they both scrambled for it, but Denrich found it first and slashed out blindly.

There was a loud gurgling sound and the man clutched his throat as blood spewed everywhere.    Apparently he had slit a vein in his wild swing.  

Not waiting for the bandit to die, he jumped to his feet, only to find the world beginning to spin and a loud buzzing in his ears.     He ignored this and staggered down the hallway, toward where he saw the men board the train.    As he neared the stairs where they had come onto the train, he felt his body going numb.    Glancing through the window in the doorway of the next car, he could see Lady Xael’s private car through the window in the doorway at the opposite end.    There were no signs of any brigands anywhere.

His throat began to tighten up and he sank to his knees, wondering if the bandit’s dagger that had cut him had been coated with poison.

It was getting more and more difficult to breathe now and he slid down to the floor near the train car’s doorway.     Through the ringing in his ears, he thought he heard doors opening and just before he lost consciousness, he thought he saw the hem of a white dress and a bit of blonde hair.

 

***

 

In the darkness, there were voices that floated like ghosts, giving bits of conversation as he hovered on the edge of death.

“Careful, pick him up easy; he’s injured,”   An old man’s voice said.   Then, a while later:

“Poison - has to be poison.”

“Do something!    Here, use this!   Don’t ask me that, just pour it in his mouth!”   This came from a young female voice, though it wasn’t Avalynn’s.

“Is it working?”   This was Avalynn’s voice, after a long silence.

“He’s breathing easier; he’ll go into a deeper sleep now.   Probably sleep for two days or so, if I know my stuff,”  Again the old man’s voice spoke.

“Well, take care of him - I’ll pay for his upkeep,”   The young, unknown woman said this.

“Yes ma’am!”  Answered the old man happily and then Denrich felt himself sinking deeper into sleep.